Nearly one in five close contacts not being reached by test and trace regime in Buckinghamshire

Data from the Department for Health and Social care shows 18,960 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in Buckinghamshire were transferred to the Test and Trace service between May 28 and January 6.

That means 4,003 new cases were transferred in the latest seven-day period – the largest increase since the regime began.

Contact tracers ask new patients to give details for anyone they were in close contact with in the 48 hours before their symptoms started.

This led to 41,133 close contacts being identified over the period – those not managed by local health protection teams, which are dealt with through a call centre or online.

But 82.3% of those were reached, meaning 7,267 people were not contacted or did not respond.

That was up from the 79.5% reached in the period to December 30.

Across England, 92.7% of contacts not managed by local health protection teams were reached and told to self-isolate by NHS Test and Trace in the latest week to January 6.

Local health protection teams deal with cases linked to settings such as hospitals, schools and prisons.

The contact tracing rate including these cases was 92.7%, up from 92.4% the week before.

Around 388,000 new cases were transferred nationally in the week to January 6.